Photo navigation

Video: A candy-making career with Helliemae's caramels

Think you had a lot to get done for the holidays? Ellen Daehnick probably has most people beat, but she’s not complaining. Daehnick is the owner of Helliemae’s Handcrafted Caramels–a one-woman business that specializes in intensely-flavored butter caramels. She said this time of year, business is a little crazy.

“From November 1st to December 25th, my life is very similar to that of a CPA on April 14th,” Daehnick said. “For that seven-week period every day is April 14th for me and I’m doing tax returns, except it’s caramels.”

Daehnick is now making a career out of making the caramels, which include her classic sea salt caramel, as well as other flavors like the seasonal candy cane caramel. She said she’d like Helliemae’s to one day support her family–and said that goal might not be too far off.

“My dream is for this to be something that gets big enough that we employ people and we’re part of the community and we’re here to stay,” Daehnick said.

Daehnick invites people to drop by her caramel-making “factory,” as she calls it, on Thursdays. She’ll probably be working on one of her many small batches and said she encourages visitors to drink whatever beer she has in her refrigerator. To learn more about Helliemae’s Handcrafted Caramels and Ellen Daehnick, check out her website. She said she also plans on teaching candy-making classes starting in 2012.